After reading and studying for this course, students should be able to:

Discuss who the Arabs were, identify the major events of Arab history, and articulate the internal and external forces that led up to and shaped these events.

The factors that drove the spread of Islam.

How the Muslims governed their vast conquered territories.

Have knowledge of complexity (ethnic, cultural, religious) within the Arab societies, as well as the dynamics of relationships among diverse groups in history.

Explain the current cultural and political challenges facing Arab peoples.

In the first part of the course the Classical Age of Arab History will be presented (some theoretical concept about power, religion, social institutution will be presented too). In the second part of the course Contemporary History of the Arab States will be analyzed. Students will be invited to apply the theoretical concepts to some concrete cases.

Part 1. Classical Age. Early Arab civilization. Arabs before and after Islam. The Caliphate and the Quran. From Tribe to Dynasty. From "Conquest State" to Islamic legitimization of power. Cities and deserts. From Damascus to Baghdad to Cordoba. Dynasties and regions in the Abbaside Era. The fall of the Caliphate.

Part 2. Contemporary History. The Arabs in and outside the Ottoman Empire. Territorialization of the State and sedentarization. The studies about the role of "weak" areas in the Arab world. MENA History 1744-1881. MENA History 1881-1918. History of Arab Nationalism in the first half of XX c. Arab independences before and after the IIWW North Africa 1945-1978. Middle East 1945-1978. MENA since 1970's.

1. Knowledge and understanding: at the end of the course, students should demonstrate to have acquired knowledge about: Critically analyze the main historical political events in the Arab History; Critically analyze the main political and social institutions in the Arab History;

2. Applying knowledge and understanding: students should be able to apply theoretical concepts on some concrete cases proposed by the Professor. Methodically explain the main themes and issues that shaped the modern Arab Countries and are contemporarily at play;

3. Capacity of judgment: students should be able to properly discuss and compare the history of different Arab countries anche analyze the consequences of the competing and convergent interests of the different regional areas.

The teaching material prepared by the lecturer in addition to recommended textbooks (such as for instance slides, lecture notes, exercises, bibliography) and communications from the lecturer specific to the course can be found inside the Moodle platform › blended.uniurb.it

The teaching material made available by the Professor can be found, together with other supporting activities, inside the Moodle platform › blended.uniurb.it (http://blended.uniurb.it) 

Teaching

Lessons, seminars, discussions. 

Attendance

Participation in at least three quarters of the lessons and practices. 

Course books

Student are requester to study:

1) Philip K.Hitti, Storia degli Arabi: dall'antichità al Novecento, Odoya, Bologna 2015 (some parts of the volume are assigned only in reading; the sections will be communicated during the course).

2) A.M. Medici, A. Pallotti, M. Zamponi, L'Africa contemporanea, Mondadori-Le Monnier, Milano, 2017 (chapters: 1, 2, 3, 4, 8, 16, 17, 19, 20, 21, 22, 27, 28, 31 e 32 ).

Assessment

Assessment of learning is done in writing (20%) and oral (80%).

A short written multiple-choice test (20%) precedes the oral discussion and verifies the basic skills acquired. The test focuses on the main topics of the course and is evaluated with quantitative judgment (number of exact answers on the total of multiple-choice questions).

The oral examination (80%) allows to verify:

- the knowledge gained in the framework of the study program,

- the acquisition of the appropriate vocabulary and the basic skills needed to discuss the themes of Arab history. It also allows to evaluate the student's synthesis capacity , aptitude to analysis and comparison, communicative and expressive skills,

- the participation in the discussions during the lessons and the in-depth seminars envisaged during the course.

The examination is judged by a thirty-plus vote.

Disability and Specific Learning Disorders (SLD)

Students who have registered their disability certification or SLD certification with the Inclusion and Right to Study Office can request to use conceptual maps (for keywords) during exams.

To this end, it is necessary to send the maps, two weeks before the exam date, to the course instructor, who will verify their compliance with the university guidelines and may request modifications.

Attendance

Students are required to know the details of the course program and have in-depth study of examination texts (contact the Tutor for any need to study the program).

The active participation of students in extraordinary seminar initiatives such as Conferences or Workshops on the subject of the course are significant part of academic work. In particular, non-attending students can take these opportunities to keep in touch with academic life, to interact with Professor and other students of the course, for information and stimuli. On these occasions, students are invited to discuss the topics of the day.

 

Course books

Student are requester to study:

1) Claudio Lo Jacono, Il Vicino Oriente. Da Muhammad alla fine del Sultanato mamelucco, Einaudi, Torino 2003.

2) A.M. Medici, A. Pallotti, M. Zamponi, L'Africa contemporanea, Mondadori-Le Monnier, Milano, 2017 (only chapters on North Africa:  1, 2, 3, 4, 8, 16, 17, 19, 20, 21, 22, 27, 28, 31 e 32 ).

3) Marcella Emiliani, Medio Oriente. Una storia dal 1918 al 1991, Laterza, Roma-Bari 2012 (only chapters n. 2, 3, 4).

Assessment

Assessment of learning is done in writing (25%) and oral (75%).

A short written multiple-choice test precedes the oral discussion and verifies the basic skills acquired. The test focuses on the main topics of the course and is evaluated with quantitative judgment (number of exact answers on the total of multiple-choice questions).

The oral examination allows to verify:

- the knowledge gained in the framework of the study program,

- the acquisition of the appropriate vocabulary and the basic skills needed to discuss the themes of Arab history. It also allows to evaluate the student's synthesis capacity , aptitude to analysis and comparison, communicative and expressive skills.

The examination is judged by a thirty-plus vote.

Disability and Specific Learning Disorders (SLD)

Students who have registered their disability certification or SLD certification with the Inclusion and Right to Study Office can request to use conceptual maps (for keywords) during exams.

To this end, it is necessary to send the maps, two weeks before the exam date, to the course instructor, who will verify their compliance with the university guidelines and may request modifications.

N. B. - Course with optional material in a foreign language: The student can request to sit the final exam in French with an alternative bibliography. / On peut soutenir l'examen final in Langue française, en utilisant une bibliographie alternatives.

Alternative programs for "free choice" exams can be agreed upon with the teacher.

A note on Wikipedia: We realize that many of you use this tool. On many topics the authors are generally reliable, of course. But to deal with Islamic history is not a reliable tool: it is full of mistakes. In recent years, many of the students who have had difficulty with their exams have acknowledged that they have used Wikipedia for major definitions and synthesis. Plagiarism cases from those pages were often - very easily - detected. So a useful note: It's very easy to spot when students rely on Wikipedia for an exam or a paper. Avoid this tool. Learning to know reliable tools to deepen the subject's topics is part of the academic skills to be acquired. The professor is at your disposal to encourage this acquisition and to provide clarification, even during the weekly office hours for students.

To facilitate the study of the history of Arab countries, the students may use some tools (atlas, historic atlas, available in libraries or on the web):

- Anne-Laure Dupont, Atlas de l'Islam dans le monde. Lieux, pratiques et idéologies, Autrement, Paris 2005 (63 p.)

- Jean Sellier, Atlante dei popoli dell'Africa, Il ponte, Bologna 2009.

- Gerald H. Blake, John Dewdney, Jonathan Mitchell, The Cambridge Atlas of the Middle East & and North Africa,
Cambridge University Press, Cambridge 1987.

- Andreas Birken, Atlas of Islam, 1800-2000, Brill, Leiden-Boston 2010.

- Malise Ruthven e Azim Manji, Historical Atlas of Islam, Harvard University Press, Cambridge (MA) 2004.

http://www.mideasti.org/ http://afriquepluriel.ruwenzori.net/atlas-total.htm

For students interested in readings or alternative programs for course sections, we recommend some texts to choose from:

E. Said, Orientalismo, Feltrinelli, Milano 2001.

O. Roy, La santa ignoranza. Religioni senza cultura, Feltrinelli, Milano 2008.

Antonino Pellitteri, Introduzione allo studio della storia contemporanea del mondo arabo, Laterza, Roma-Bari, 2008.

D. Della Ratta, Al Jazeera. Media e società arabe nel nuovo millennio, B. Mondadori, Milano 2005.

M. Torri (a cura di), Il grande Medio Oriente nell'era dell'egemonia americana, Mondadori, Milano 2006.

B. De Poli, I musulmani del terzo millennio. Laicità e secolarizzazione nel mondo islamico, Carocci Editore, Roma 2007.

G. Calchi Novati, Storia dell'Algeria indipendente, Bompiani, Milano 1998.

M. Al-Rasheed, Storia dell'Arabia saudita, Bompiani, Milano 2004.

R. Di Peri, Il Libano contemporaneo. Storia, politica, società, Carocci, Roma 2009.

R. Redaelli, L'Iran contemporaneo, Carocci, Roma 2009.

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